Autonomy's IDOL technology and the products they built around it are really competitive, specifically around the E-Discovery and Information Managment Solutions. Their marketing had always been very good, fantastic material, good demos, etc. Also the support from the Pre-Sales department has been exceptionally strong.

The corporate culture had been the worst I every experienced. People were purely looked at from a numbers perspective, senior management would never listen to anything they were told from somebody who was not part of their "club" (i.e. at least Cambridge based). Senior managers would regularly shout at employess, call them names, etc. - absolute nightmare

thankfully the senior management has completely left since the acquisition by HP. The new management should clearly pay more respect to their employees. Also the "international" approach has been purely around the UK and the USA. Any other part of the business (regionally) was overlooked. Management should pay a lot more attention to other regions, since there is untapped potential.

Great company with a group of employees that are very energising to work among. I joined prior to the acquisition, and have seen so much change throughout the whole organisation, almost entirely for the better. A solid product set with a genuinely exciting story to tell. It's given me opportunities that I would never have had anywhere else.

Cons

HP is a very big company, and that inevitably leads to some frustrations. These are probably less problematic for someone joining the company fresh, but it represented quite a shift for existing employees. It can be a lot to get your head round at first, but is something that you can figure out with time.

Worked on a great sub-team with great people, which was the only reason I stayed as long as I did. Free Friday lunch.

Cons

Terrible culture. Micro-managing leadership. Lack of product vision in areas with limited experience. Inconsistent messaging to employees. Ridiculous hiring guidelines that could be overturned at any point by the CTO at the time.